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Build to Rent: Re-inventing the Wheel?

There’s a new way of investing in residential property and it’s called Build to Rent. Or, more popularly B2R.

After an elephantine gestation period, B2R is finally gaining some traction as the institutional investment ideal. With ideas imported from the US, where the Multi-Family model as evolved over the past 45 years, purpose built rental blocks using innovative management systems look to re-invent the rental experience for thousands across the UK.

Make no mistake, B2R is a serious new asset class which will challenge the dominance of the small Buy To Let (BTL) investorswho currently outnumber institutional investors by 9-1.

So what’s different? Well, firstly, B2R is exactly that. Purpose built apartment blocks designed for a new rental experience which is easy to manage and maintain. Secondly, the management style: inclusive, proactive, consistent and customer focused. Something that the smaller investor cannot compete with. These institutions want their customers to be settled, happy and content. They want their 1000’s of renters to be long term and spread the gospel. In time, and it will happen if they get it right, the only way to rent will be in a B2R block.

Now that doesn’t mean the BTL investor will disappear entirely, but they will have to raise their game. And that’s not a bad thing.

The service industries that have grown up around the BTL market have transferable skills and those that are forward looking and innovative can be part of the B2R revolution.

SLC are at the forefront of this new Professional Rental Sector and, employing experience gained from working with block management and investment clients, have been advising on downstream management systems for a number of the most forward thinking institutions and investment companies. But, we’ve notre-invented the wheel and nor has the B2R sector. What we have done, collectively, is shake it up and make it better. For everyone.